Peter Nygard’s lawyer is asking a Toronto judge to sentence the disgraced fashion mogul to just under two years of time in jail going forward, after he was found guilty last fall of four counts of sexual assault.
“The goal from my perspective is to have Mr. Nygard remain in the provincial system,” Winnipeg-based lawyer Gerri Wiebe told Toronto Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein Thursday, on the final morning of Nygard’s two-day sentencing hearing.
The recommendation accounts for what Wiebe said are mitigating factors in Nygard’s case, including the 83-year-old’s age, declining health and what the lawyer called the “harsh conditions” of his time in custody so far.
It’s based on a recommended sentence of two years each for three of the assaults, and two-and-a-half years for another that involved a girl who was 16 at the time.
While that would add up to an eight-and-a-half year prison sentence, Wiebe said a term that long would be “crushing” for Nygard, and asked the judge to reduce it to six years under the court’s principle of ensuring sentences aren’t excessive.
The lawyer also asked that Nygard be given credit for the time he’s been in custody since he was initially arrested in Winnipeg on separate charges in 2020 — not just the time he’s spent in custody in Toronto since he was arrested there in 2021.
Found guilty by a jury on Nov. 12, Nygard’s sentencing was delayed in part because his two previous defence lawyers, Brian Greenspan and Megan Savard, withdrew from the case earlier this year. Last week, Nygard lost a bid to have the hearing pushed back again.
Nygard again appeared in court next to his lawyer during the hearing on Thursday, wearing a black Canada Goose parka with a hood over his head and paper shields largely obscuring his face. Court heard he wears those around his glasses because of an eye condition that makes him sensitive to light.
Prosecutors asked for a much longer sentence earlier in the sentencing, recommending the judge give Nygard 15 years in prison for a pattern of attacks Crown attorney Neville Golwalla said Wednesday were “predatory.”
Nygard, who once led a multimillion-dollar clothing empire, was found guilty on four counts of sexual assault. He was acquitted of a fifth count, as well as a charge of forcible confinement.
The charges relate to incidents dating from the 1980s until the mid-2000s, and involve three women who were in their 20s in addition to the one who was 16 at the time.
Justice Goldstein reserved his decision until next week. Nygard will be sentenced on Friday, Aug. 2.
Manitoba trial on sexual assault charges delayed
Nygard is also facing charges in Manitoba, Quebec and the United States.
His Manitoba trial on sexual assault-related charges has been delayed in part due to Greenspan’s resignation as his defence lawyer in that case, as well as the Toronto one.
Nygard also faces one count of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement in Quebec.
He was first arrested in Winnipeg in 2020 under the Extradition Act, after he was charged with nine counts in New York, including sex-trafficking and racketeering charges.
In May, Manitoba’s highest court dismissed Nygard’s application for a judicial review of his extradition order, finding there was no reason to interfere with the order issued by the federal justice minister.
None of the criminal charges against Nygard in Quebec, Manitoba or the U.S. have been tested in court, and he has denied all allegations against him.